Changing the Game
by artphyxia
Summary: Allegra is followed by misfortune. First she gets mugged on her way home. Then by some strange force of nature she's shunned into an alternative reality, stranded in a place where thugs roam the streets, police corruption is common knowledge, and a man dressed as a bat fights crime at night: Gotham. Knowing what will happen, can she stop Batman from creating his arch-nemesis?
1. The Worst Luck

I just had this idea stuck in my head about a girl trapped in an alternative reality (which happens to be Gotham-the home of all my favourite villains and heroes) who manages to screw everything up immensely!

Disclaimer: Allegra is an OC that I made up, but the rest belongs to DC comics.

I really hope you'll enjoy it! I would love some opinions and comments :)

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 **Changing the Game - part 1: the worst luck**

Allegra Serino could not believe her blasted luck. First she'd been mugged on her way back home, and then by some weird force of nature—definitely not a miracle of any sort—she'd been shunned into a parallel universe. It had begun a shitty day, and it didn't seem to get any better. The first day she'd walked around, gaping and staring, convinced she'd passed out and was having the weirdest yet most realistic dream in her twenty-one years of existence. The second day she'd been chased through the streets and alleyways by a couple of thugs. She had been certain that would be the end. Terrified beyond words. Dream or not, she did not want to be murdered. Or worse.

But just as the men had been throwing themselves at her, knives glinting in the glow of a stray streetlight, a dark shadow had swooped down from above, jagged wings landing softly on the ground, eyes glowing white in the night. The creature had saved her. Beat the thugs to a pulp. She'd heard the cracking of bones as the creature had twisted one of their arms backwards, breaking it. She'd stared, horrified, as the creature had turned to her. And then it had spoken, asked her if she was hurt, and she'd realized; it wasn't a creature. It was a man. Dressed as a bat no less.

The third day it had all sunk in. It wasn't a dream. She'd stumbled into another world. An alternative world. Where a place with men dressed as bats and ridiculously-dressed thugs ran about the streets. _Gotham._ She'd been stranded in bloody Gotham. Out of all the places in the world, she had to end up here.

It had only gotten worse from that point. After meeting the Bat—she felt silly calling him Batman—she'd sought refuge on a fire escape, hoping dearly that the thugs and criminals of Gotham wasn't fond of heights. She'd spent an hour there, before a resident had seen her through a window and screamed bloody murder and threatened to call the police on her.

Allegra had roamed the streets without destination. She'd had no place to go. No money, no identity, no friends. Naturally, her bad luck hadn't run out quite yet. She'd walked into the Narrows, guided by her complete lack of direction. She'd barely escaped another set of thugs, but managed to outrun them. And then by pure misfortune—which she'd been granted generously lately—she'd stumbled across the Red Hood gang. They took a liking to her, had seen potential in her agility and speed. One threat lead to another and suddenly she'd been part of the family.

Now here she was, standing inside Ace Chemicals, with a stupid-looking and weird-shaped red helmet on her head. A man they called Jack was supposed to lead the way. He'd worked here once, he was supposed to know the place. The others were hopeful. But Allegra knew better. This would not end well. She'd read the comics, seen the animated series. She was standing at the very beginning of what would develop into years of murder and insanity and laughter. Jack would fail, and when approached by the Batman he'd fall into the chemicals which would turn him into one of the most frightening and interesting villains the world had ever seen.

 **The Joker.**

Allegra realized then that maybe it didn't need to turn out that way. Maybe she could change the outcome. Spare millions of lives. Jack would stay an ordinary person, free to go back to his life, start over. She had to _try_.

As expected, the policemen rushed in, guns blazing. Jack was running, trying to avoid being hit by the bullets flying past him. Allegra followed, cursing the darn helmet for being heavy and in the way. Two of the Red Hoods were shot on sight and killed. Allegra heard the voice of the Batman growling at the police to stop firing.

"Jack! Stop!" Allegra shouted, running after him best she could. He was fast, but so was she. She caught up with him, calling his name once more, and this time he stopped and turned around.

"We need to get…out of here," Allegra said, catching her breath.

Jack nodded, but stiffened as the Batman landed in front of them. _Well, bollocks,_ Allegra thought. The odds were dwindling by the second. Things were still playing out the way they were supposed to. The Batman approached, threatening and scary as he looked in the greenish light from the chemicals, and Jack backed away, terrified. He was holding a gun, pointed it at Batman with trembling hands. The masked vigilante came towards them, cape billowing behind him. Jack let out a startled whimper and took another step back. Allegra turned to him, about to tell him to drop the gun and just give up, when he fired. The bullet bounced off the Kevlar armour and did very little damage. It did, however, stir a reaction from the Bat.

"Drop the gun!" Batman growled in his deep voice.

Allegra held her hands up in defeat. Things were starting to get out of hand. She had to do something.

"Wait!" she shouted. "Please. He was frightened, that's all!"

Batman hesitated for a short moment, but continued his stride towards them. Jack was panicking now. He dropped the gun, backed into the reeling and lost his balance. Allegra rushed over to him, grabbed his arm to pull him back, but he fell backwards, the weight pulling her with him. She heard Batman shouting something at them as they fell towards that pit of luminous green liquid. As they plunged into the chemicals, her skin burned with an agony unlike any she'd ever felt and the pain ripped her from consciousness.

When she woke up, she lay outside. She sat up, blinking, wondering what the hell had just happened. At first she couldn't remember, but then it started to come back in pieces. Batman. Jack. The Chemicals. They'd fallen in! She stared at her hands. They looked like hands. It was hard to tell in the dark, but they looked all right. She breathed out, relieved. But where was Jack?

Allegra searched for him, but all she found was footsteps in the wet grass. He'd been washed up further along and by the looks of it, he'd left already. Allegra swallowed. She was feeling okay. There was a chance Jack had—by some unknown miracle—avoided his fate as Batman's arch-nemesis. She supposed she would find out soon enough.

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Hope you liked it! Stay tuned for the next chapter :)


	2. A Feline Friend

I'm back with a new chapter! Hope you'll enjoy it!  
Next chapter will be a little bit longer, I think, as I'm eager to jump into the action :D

Review, favourite! Whatever floats your boat. Reviews are always appreciated ;)

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Allegra rubbed her hands over her arms, trembling, chilled by her damp clothes and the nightly breeze. There was something else. A strange sensation in the pit of her stomach. It grew as she walked on, warm and wild, foreign. She passed a shop window, stopping as she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the glass. She turned to face the window and her eyes widened. Her hands reached up to her face in confusion and a subtle terror, expanding at a growing speed inside her chest, twisting her insides into knots. Her fingers traced the lines of her face—except it wasn't her face. Not like she remembered it.

She was paler than she'd ever been and she couldn't blame it on the cold. Her lips were faint and lacking their usual pink. She leaned in closer to the reflective surface, studying herself. _Is this me?_ The pale reflection moved as she moved, its expression fearful and on the verge of panic. She reached up to her hair. It seemed different, but it was difficult to tell in the dark. She went over to the next shop window, stopping under the streetlight to get a better look. Her breath hitched in her throat. _Green. My hair is green!_ So was her eyes. They stared back at her, unblinking, too vivid and green for an ordinary person. They almost glowed.

She buried her face in her hands, not wanting to see that horrifying reflection staring back at her. Turning her steps away from the window, she jogged up the street, soon running as if her life was on the line. She ran and ran, tears streaming down her face, fear consuming her from within, until her legs couldn't take it anymore. She hid away in an alley, next to a dumpster, where she sank down and wept. The weird sensation frightened her, threatening to devour her from the inside out, but there was something about it she found soothing, the way it promised to take all the pain away. She pushed it back, burying her face against her knees.

After twenty more minutes of crying and hyperventilating, her body relaxed. Her tears had ran out, emptied of all the emotional chaos, and the shock of what had happened began to pass. She'd fallen into the vat of chemicals. Somehow it had changed her. Like it had changed the Joker. But she felt no different on the inside. She was the same person still. Wasn't she? _I have no identity. I don't even exist in this world. I'm not supposed to be here._ She hugged her knees. She had no purpose, no life in this world. Was there even a reason she was here? Was she here at all? Or had she ended up in a coma from being shot by the mugger back home? Was all this some weird dream? The last one seemed most probable. There was no such things as parallel universes and dimensions. But then why did everything hurt, why was it all so real? Would she ever be able to get back home? She let out a shuddering breath. Either way, she was no one in this place. But that didn't have to be a bad thing, right? She could reinvent herself; become someone new. Allegra Serino didn't exist. She was a canvas, waiting to be painted, to be created from scratch and made complete.

The sound of a whip startled her from her thoughts. A woman clad in a black skin-tight suit landed on the dumpster almost soundlessly. Allegra instantly identified her as the Catwoman. Catwoman looked down at her, a frown on her face, and Allegra looked up at her, cheeks still wet from tears. Catwoman gave her an uncertain look, weighing alternatives, before she finally sighed, and crouched down on the dumpster.

"Are you lost, kitten?" she asked. "You've strayed quite far from Uptown."

Allegra glanced down at her clothes. She guessed Catwoman was referring to her purple tailored autumn coat and the gold earrings—both presents from her mother.

"Kind of," Allegra admitted. "I'm…not from around here."

Catwoman raised her eyebrows. "You're some rich business man's daughter from out of town, then?"

Allegra shrugged, not sure what to say. She was feeling better now, much better. The miserable feeling from before had evaporated, replaced by something akin to indifference. Denial, maybe. Or perhaps she'd given up. It didn't really matter. If she was stuck here, she would have to start over. Build a life for herself. But firstly, she had to _survive._

"You wouldn't happen to know a place where I can sleep?"

"A nice hotel. Some rich boy's mansion. You should have plenty of options. Just take a cab and get out of here. Your kind is very appreciated around here, and that's not a good thing. The thugs out here will kill you for those earrings, girl. Just some friendly advice."

"I don't have any money," Allegra said. "I got mugged."

Catwoman slipped off the dumpster and straightened up. "Well, that's unfortunate."

"I'd be grateful if you showed me somewhere I could sleep. For free. Someplace safe, preferably."

Catwoman scoffed.

"Grateful enough to give me those earrings? This is Gotham. Nowhere is safe."

" _Safer_ , then. And yes, if you help me, I'll give them to you."

That peaked Catwoman's interest. A smile spread across her red-painted lips.

"Well, little missy, let's go."

Catwoman showed her to an abandoned apartment. The previous owners had been evicted and now the place stood empty.

"Thanks," Allegra said. She reached up to her ears, but hesitated, wondering briefly how she'd explain to her mother why she wasn't wearing the earrings. Her mother would surely scold her harshly, thinking she'd lost them. But her mother wasn't here. And if Allegra was ever going to get back to her world, she needed to be alive. She removed her earrings and held them out to Catwoman. "Here. As promised."

Catwoman glanced at them, sensing Allegra's hesitation, and then at Allegra. She was silent for a couple of moments. Then she sighed and shook her head.

"Keep them. What kind of thief would I be to steal from lost kids? I have bigger fish to fry."

Allegra smiled. "Thank you. Truly."

"I must say, I have never met a rich girl who's dyed her hair green before."

"It's a Central City trend," Allegra lied. "Everyone's dying their hair strange colours over there."

"Well, I gotta go, lil' kitten," Catwoman said, walking over to the window. She cast one last glance at Allegra and said: "Be careful out there," before she jumped out through the window and disappeared into the night. Allegra stared after her for a moment before walking over to close the window. She glanced down at the windowsill, mouth falling open. There was a wad of dollars lying there. Had Catwoman left them for her?

This Catwoman seemed more compassionate than Allegra had imagined her to be. More kind and caring than she let on. On the outside she was acting tough and indifferent, always confident, but tonight Allegra had glimpsed-not Catwoman-but Selina Kyle beneath the mask and goggles. Allegra slumped down on the worn-out couch, her gaze fixed on the wall.

Now what? She was trapped in this world. She'd found temporary shelter and thanks to Catwoman she had enough woman to buy herself new clothes and food, but she needed a plan. More than that, she needed to find out what had happened to Jack. Her stomach dropped at the thought. The chances he'd remained himself suddenly seemed very slim and unlikely. Despite her efforts, he'd been doomed from the start. So what was she doing here, if not to save Gotham from the Joker? She needed to find out. And she knew one person that could help her for sure.

But she wasn't certain if he'd be as willing to trust her as she would him.

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Next chapter will include some reveals about what happened to Jack and we'll also see the masked vigilante ;)


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